Soldiers, Redux
by GenaricFanFicWriter
Summary: A (not very) comedic look into the lives of Rebel Soldiers after the destruction of the first Death Star.
1. Chapter 1: The First Chapter

**Authors Note: About a year ago, I posted my foray into fanfiction, Soldiers. It was... mediocre, but suffered from me rushing chapters and not caring enough. I stopped after four chapters, but I kept thinking about the story. I realized that, despite its faults, I liked the idea of Soldiers. So, bored one day, I started to rewrite the first chapter. Welcome to Soldiers Redux (because redux makes things sound cool).**

James woke on the cold steel block he was given as a bed. He stretched, his back in pain from the hard bed, and looked around at the mostly empty beds around him. He put on a coat over his shirt, and checked the clock. 0412. He stood up, rubbed his eyes, and made his way to the mess hall.

The mess hall was loud and excited. This was to be expected, as the soldiers based on Yavin were being transferred to the base at Hoth. This was only a few days after a number of them participated in the destruction of the Death Star. The soldiers at Hoth were starved for details, partially due to their limited communications with other bases. James fought through the crowd to the food servers and received his breakfast of cold, green scrambled eggs, stale, almost frozen meat of some sort, and water. He caught the eye of one of his comrades, and made his way to their table.

"James! Where the hell were you? The alarm rang 10 minutes ago!" one of the men, a young, pale man named Kyle said.

"Asleep. I doubt I kept anyone waiting." He set his tray down on the table and took a seat.

"Yeah, but ever since the battle of Yavin, Thompson has been getting on our backs about being efficient," the other soldier said.

"Well, Dan, you can tell Thompson to suck it. Having anyone wake up before 6 should be outlawed. Besides, the returners are enough of a distraction for me to sneak in," James responded.

Dan sighed and went back to eating his food.

They sat, eating their rations quietly until someone came up to them.

"You guys are awful quiet," he said

"Charles! How's our little war hero doing?" James asked.

"Stop, you flatter me," Charles said, obviously happy for the attention. "I barely got to do anything. Skywalker and his friends stole all the action."

"You still got to do more than us! We never get to do anything," James complained.

"What about your mission to Kazbar," Charles asked sitting down and stealing one of Kyles' strips of bacon.

"Please, I was a glorified mailmen. There weren't even any stormtroopers along the way to make it difficult!"

"Still, you got to leave this hellhole," Dan muttered, finishing of his plate.

"Did you guys see the medal ceremony?" Charles asked.

"We can't even make calls here, let alone watch video. Who'd they give medals to?" Dan responded, loudly. Maybe a little to loudly as a few nearby troops looked at him oddly.

"Skywalker and his folks," Charles quietly responded, glaring at Dan.

"Figures. I swear these four random people show up out of nowhere, and steal all of the credit. It's stupid," Kyle briskly responded. The others sat silently for a bit eating their food. A loud siren started to ring and a voice over the intercom said "All flight units please report to the hangar." The soldiers stood up, dumped their food in the trash cans, and made their way down the halls.


	2. Chapter 2: Just Like the Simulations

"Dan, what the hell went on in there?" James asked as they walked away from the hangar.

"I don't know! The... thingy slipped!" Dan responded flustered.

"Wait, what the hell are you two talking about?" Kyle asked. James took a deep breath.

"Well, this moron over here decided to crash his ship into mine during the simulation, causing us to fail."

"It's not my fault that you didn't get out of the way!" Dan responded, getting enraged.

"Well I wouldn't need to get out of the way if you hadn't rammed your ship into mine!"

"Guys!" Kyle yelled at them both, shutting up their bickering.

"No one else gives a crap about your little dispute, especially me. So either say you're sorry, or shut up," Kyle continued.

James nodded for a moment, smiled and said, "Then I guess we just won't talk to each other!" Then began to walk away.

"Wait, that's not what I meant!" Kyle yelled, but the two were far too entranced by their new idea to notice.

* * *

"What are they doing?" Charles asked Kyle. He had been perched on a crate of food watching the two struggle to carry a large package through a much smaller doorway.

"They made some idiotic decision to stop talking to each other, so they can't give each other advice. It's quite funny really," he responded.

Charles leaned against the crate as well.

"Christ, they're like a couple of school children. How old are they, like 25?"

"I know. But, as much as I hate their idiocy, they put on a hell of a show," he responded.

"Hey, I don't think that's what's you're supposed to do!" Kyle yelled as James dropped the package straight onto his foot, the corner of the crate breaking into the cold floor.

* * *

"... And cleaning ships in quadrant 5 will be Dan and James."

James raised his hand. Thompson sighed.

"What is it, James?" He asked

"Do I have to work with Dan? Can I choose anyone else? Like, I don't know, Charles?"

"Charles is with Sarah. And if you don't like my decisions, then you'll just have to suck it up, because as you may or may not know, I'm second on command." Thompson said, and went to get the supplies.

"More like second in _dumb_ and," muttered James. Charles gave him a high-five. Kyle walked over to the three of them, looking stern.

"Look, I don't know why you guys can't just swallow your pride and start acting normal. Not talking isn't getting you anywhere." Kyle said angrily.

"It's not about where it's going to get us, it's about the fact of the matter. I think James is an idiot, and therefore I have no desire to talk to him." Dan said, and went back to his vow of silence. It was about then Thompson arrived back.

"Kyle, Charles, go back to your groups. The cleaning supplies are upfront. Now let's do this quick people!"

* * *

Dan aggressively washed the cold steel of the snow speeder, James working on the other side. The two worked in complete silence, aside from their airy breaths. Eventually, Dan broke the silence.

"What the hell is your problem, anyway?" He abruptly asked.

"I thought we weren't speaking? Or did you screw that up as well?" James said smugly.

"I don't give a damn about that! Why are you acting so uptight about a simple mistake?" Dan yelled.

"Because you made us lose. We failed the simulation."

"There are a thousand tests we do. The fate of your existence doesn't rest on this one. It's not like you have a perfect streak you have to keep up!" James was silent after this. He stood there, letting the words bounce around in his head like a ball.

"Because every time I fail, it's another reminder that I'm not good enough to go out there. That there's a reason I'm stuck here, and that's because I don't have the skill to do anything worth a damn," James muttered. And then it was Dan's turn to be quiet. He hadn't heard the usually cocky James say anything that close to his chest before. It was a odd change of pace.

"I'm sorry I messed it up for you," Dan said.

"Don't be. You couldn't help it. I'm sorry I was such a dick to you." And, after that, the two friends continued washing the speeder, but instead of being driven by anger, it was driven by forgiveness.

* * *

"So you two decided to talk now?" Kyle asked at breakfast the next morning.

"Yeah. We decided it wasn't worth the trouble." James responded.

"I'm just glad I'm not going have to deal with you two acting like you're five years old." Charles said, and then laughed a hearty laugh. The rest of the table joined in with the laughter, their cold mist of a breath helping warming the room.


End file.
